Apocalypse
Apocalypse was a heavyweight robot which competed in Series 10 of Robot Wars. It was entered by Team Asgard, who had previously won the pilot episode in 2016 with Turbulence. Apocalypse lost the two fights its was in, as it suffered from an internal fire in both of its losses, to Apollo and Sabretooth respectively. Design Apocalypse used a low box-shaped design, with a steep front wedge, armed in HARDOX and titanium. It used a weapon system similar to that of Splinter, as it wielded two horizontal axes, designed to hold robots in place for its strongest weapon, its overhead axe, to strike. The grabbing arms exert 60kg of force. The axe could alternatively be used as a self-righting mechanism. Apocalypse was four-wheel driven, with its wheels being slightly exposed on top, and used powerful AmpFlow A28-A400 24V motors, run using a Wotty 360amp motor controller. Its horizontal grabbers were a new addition to the robot for television, having exclusively used an axe on the live circuit. The grabbers fired quickly, but had a tendency to swing around after being activated, rather than remaining in place or retracting. The Team Apocalypse was entered by Team Asgard, captained by 33-year old Ed Wallace, who was previously involved with the production crew of Robot Wars and also entered the pilot episode with Turbulence. Ed Wallace was the sole builder of Apocalypse, and was in charge of its maintenance, also driving the robot in both of its battles. For Series 10, Ed Wallace was joined by his employer, 75-year old Chris Page, the oldest roboteer to appear in the reboot of the show. This created a narrative throughout Apocalypse's campaign, as Ed Wallace's position as team captain allowed him to give instructions to his own employer while Chris Page assisted with the repairs of Apocalypse. 23-year old apprentice engineer Miles Page also joined the team as the weapons operator, controlling Apocalypse's axe and grabbing arms. Robot History Series 10 Apocalypse competed in Heat 1 of Series 10, and faced the Series 8 champions, Apollo, as well as the new entry from Team Big Brother, The Swarm, in its Group Battle. In the opening period, Apocalypse struggled to get into the early pace of the battle, as it followed Pinza, before bumping into the rambot, Skye, and Rubber Duck. While it drove at the latter, it became clear to the team that they were having issues with their weaponry. Apocalypse then reversed Blenda backwards, while withstanding slashes from the clusterbot's weapon, before functioning as a wedge again as it drove Rubber Duck backwards. After this, Apocalypse came under pressure from Apollo, and narrowly missed a flip from the ex-champion. Apocalypse tried to remain aggressive while avoiding Apollo, as it drove Blenda into the arena wall, but Apocalypse was only able to avoid Team MAD for so long, before a massive flip sent Apocalypse cartwheeling towards the arena gate. This was followed up by another strong launch into the CPZ, with Apocalypse sent crashing into Sir Killalot. Apocalypse tried to move away from the House Robot, but only succeeded in getting itself stuck on the Flame Pit, before it started to smoke. Apocalypse was picked up by Sir Killalot and spun around before being dumped back onto the arena hazard, where it was left to burn. Apocalypse was immobilised as a result, and after The Swarm were beaten too, cease was called, leaving Apocalypse with a second and final chance at progressing in the Robot Redemption round. First though, repairs were needed after Apollo's damaging flips in the Group Battle. Apocalypse faced Sabretooth in its Robot Redemption battle. Apocalypse immediately attacked an initially sluggish Sabretooth and rammed into it - although it failed to connect with two swings of the axe. Apocalypse's next rally of attacks with its axe proved more effective though, connecting with blows in and around the drum of Sabretooth, as it drove the yellow and black machine towards the arena wall. Sabretooth backed into space, but Apocalypse continued to pursue, and forced Sabretooth to retreat dangerously close to Shunt. Apocalypse then got close to the House Robot itself in attempting to carry out a follow-up attack, but it moved away quickly as it darted over the Arena Spikes. Sabretooth then decided to activate The Fog of War for the first time in Robot Wars, which Apocalypse dealt with by remaining stationary during the time the new arena hazard was active. Once vision was clear again, Apocalypse charged into Sabretooth again, and got another hit in with its axe as it drove Sabretooth over the Flame Pit. Suddenly though, Apocalypse started to spin around inside its own circumference, with a drive chain dropping onto the arena floor soon after. Apocalypse continued to attack Sabretooth with its axe, but a strong Sabretooth drive left Apocalypse crippled and on fire against the arena gate. With two defeats in a row, Apocalypse was eliminated from the competition. Results |} Wins/Losses *Wins: 0 *Losses: 2 Series Record Outside Robot Wars TurbMk2.png|Turbulence Mk2 at a Roaming Robots Event at Stoke On Trent 2008 Apoc2008.png|Turbulence Mk2 rebranded as Apocalypse at a Robots Live! event at Huddersfield 2008 Apocalypse.jpg|Apocalypse in its 2009 specification Apoc2011.png|Apocalypse Mk2 with a yellow flipper in 2011 Prior to its conversion into an axebot, Apocalypse first debuted on the live circuit as a rebuilt version of Turbulence mk2, the successor to Ed Wallace’s former UK champion Turbulence. This version of Apocalypse was a flipper, but it did not enjoy a great deal of success, and was eventually sold to Alex Shakespeare who renamed it AAK (An Adorable Kitten) and entered the 2015 Robot Wars World Championship with it. AAK lost its first round and a six-way melee there due to various mechanical problems, and was later sold to Team ACE. The current version of Apocalypse was initially armed with the axe only, and has fought exclusively at Robots Live! events. It made its competition debut at their Stevenage event in October 2016, participating in the FRA UK Heavyweight Championship as well as various whiteboard battles. In one particular battle, Apocalypse’s top panel was damaged by Gabriel, so Ed Wallace donated this piece to Alex Brown's charity auction in 2017. A brand new version of Apocalypse was completed in April 2018, using a rounded body which abandoned the robot's grabbing arms. The robot now weighed 99kg, and was scheduled to appear at the Robots Live! event in Burgess Hill, but withdrew from its intended battle as the robot from suffered unexpected difficulties. It instead competed in Grantham, in a melee against Bullfrog and Toxic 2. In September 2018, Apocalypse reappeared at the Robots Live! event in Stevenage, competing in the FRA UK Heavyweight Championship. There, it reached the first 'Redemption' round after losing an earlier battle; however, Apocalypse was eliminated from the championship after getting flipped over by Behemoth and left with its axe stuck through the wall. Apocalypse also competed at the Robots Live! events in 2019, testing a new brushless drive system at Grantham despite not using it in battle. At this event, Apocalypse lost its only competition fight to Eruption, but exchanged axe blows with Thor in a whiteboard battle, where it was ultimately pitted. This version of Apocalypse also appeared at ''Robonerd'' in 2018 and 2019 as a static display piece. Team Captain Ed Wallace has also fought on the live event circuit with a few featherweights, some of which had multiple versions with the same name. They are listed below: CBF2.jpg|C.B.F. Mk2 CBF3.jpg|C.B.F. Mk 3 CBF4.jpg|C.B.F. Mk 4 DB5.jpg|DB5 DB52.jpg|DB5 Mk2 DB53.jpg|DB5 Mk3 DB54.jpg|DB5 Mk4 SecretWeapon.jpg|Secret Weapon DB10.jpg|DB10 Asgard.jpg|Asgard *'C.B.F.': While it is unknown what the first version looked like, all four versions were completely different machines. The second version was a pointed triangular wedge-shaped robot, the third version was a two-wheel drive, wedged box-shaped robot with two ramming spikes, and the fourth version was a four-wheeled pushing robot. *'DB5': A series of four-wheel driven box-shaped robots, some armed with spinning drums or egg beaters. *'Secret Weapon': A two-wheel driven, octagonal-shaped featherweight with a front vertical spinning drum. *'DB10': The successor to DB5, with a powerful vertical spinning disc. *'Asgard': A featherweight armed with a pneumatic axe and with a strong resemblance to heavyweight Thor. *'DB12': The newest version of Ed Wallace's featherweight vertical spinner, with an improved wedge, painted red. DB12 debuted at the King of Bots UK featherweight championship, held at the Insomnia gaming festival in August 2018. It comfortably won its first battle against Meow and Vega, using its spinner to throw the latter out of the arena, but lost to Rocket in its next two fights; the second round after losing the use of its disc while inverted, and the third after getting thrown out of the arena by the Team MAD machine. Despite scoring enough points to reach the knockout round, DB12 also lost to Barróg there after suffering drive problems and becoming immobilised. DB12 redeemed itself in its five-way losers melee, defeating Hell's Angel, Furious George, Utopia and Saber-X by knockout. DB12 lost its next fight in the round of 12 after being pushed into the pit by Barróg during a rematch, but once again qualified through a losers melee, defeating Aegis and Blunt Force Trauma Remix to reach the Top 8. DB12 would earn revenge on Barróg by throwing it onto its side during their Quarter-Final battle, reaching the Semi-Finals as a result. There, it lost to Calabash Bros after becoming immobilised and pitted, and DB12 lost its play-off battle to Rocket, finishing in fourth place overall. Ed Wallace also collaborated with Alan Young and Kevin Cleasby to compete in the Chinese TV show King of Bots with a heavyweight robot named Vulcan. The robot was black, and was armed with a large bladed axe. In the first round, it fought the Chinese flipper, Saber. However, after being flipped in the early stages, Vulcan struggled to land axe blows. Vulcan was turned over by the floor flipper, and later lost the use of a wheel. Towards the end of the second minute, Excalibur flipped Vulcan over, and after struggling to self-right, its axe became stuck in a flame jet, leaving it stuck. Thus, Vulcan lost in the first round. Regardless, it still fought alongside Tánshè in a Tag Team battle against Saber and Greedy Snake, winning the battle on a Judges' decision due to Tánshè immobilising Saber. Although Vulcan returned for the related show This is Fighting Robots, Ed Wallace was unable to attend filming, despite assisting with the upgrades of the machine. Ed Wallace rejoined Team MAD to compete in King of Bots 2 with the brand-new Vulcan 2, which used a flipper design heavily inspired by Apollo. Trivia *Team member Chris Page was the oldest competitor in Series 10, and the rebooted Robot Wars as a whole, at the age of 75. External Links *Apocalypse - Fighting Robot Facebook page *[http://robotwars.tv/competitors/season-10/week-1/apocalypse Apocalypse on the Robot Wars website] Category:UK Series competitors Category:Robots which debuted in Series 10 Category:Robots which only fought in Series 10 Category:Robots with Horizontal Crushers Category:Robots with Bladed Axes Category:Robots from the West Midlands Category:Robots with multiple appearances without winning a battle Category:Teams which competed in King of Bots Category:Robots which are still competing today